1st day of the Wedding

This is the first wedding that I've attended that I actually knew the person that was getting married! It was big Big Momma's niece. It was definitely a special occasion because we had been invited to the family celebration!

Hui weddings are usually a 2-3 day extravaganza. We got out of class on Friday and then headed towards Hui Men Jia Area- the area of town were all the Hui Chinese live (there are 56 different people groups in China - Hui is considered one of largest groups, they are ethnically Chinese and culturally are all Muslim).

The celebrations are an all day thing, just hanging out with family and friends, chatting, and eating pretty much all day! It was a lot of fun getting to be apart of the celebration and getting to know the family more.

Hanging out in 奶奶 (nai nai -grandma's) house waiting for the ceremony

The lady in the middle is the grandma of our friend

The view from the house

Preparing to go down the street
Part of the cermony is moving the bride and all her stuff to her new home - which we were part of and was a lot of fun

We got to see her before the ceremony - she said she was so nervous... tradition is that the bride has to wait in her room until the groom comes and knocks on the door and gets her

Then he brought her down to the room where we and the rest of the family were all waiting. They did the cermony in Chinese and Arabic as they did the vows, prayers, and blessed them.


Some of the fathers and grandpas all waiting in anticipation

We were crammed in the room with all the family

This was the first day of celebrations... wait till you see the second day!